The legend of the dayfighter
by MariaGuerinCullenWinchester
Summary: Maria is trapped in a battle between sworn enemies, not realizing how much she has in common with the war raging for centuries.


**Chapter 1**

I'm walking down the streets of New Orleans, always at night and always alone. I like the dark and the cool air; it's like a slight caress on my cold skin. I love this town with the many people and the mystical atmosphere, which is always hanging over us, especially as soon as the sun goes down and I'm able to leave the safety of my home. The nights here are usually very quiet with not so many people around. They're all afraid of the creatures of the night and so I'm usually almost on my own.

Sometimes though there are drunken guys trying to pick a fight with me, although I just try to ignore them. I mean I make an attempt to stay in the background, gliding like a shadow through the silent streets and they fling insults at me. Normally I just need to send them a look and they're running away in fear, but some of the times there are dumber guys who don't let themselves get scared from my glare. They have to learn the hard way not to mess with me. I don't kill them or harm them too much, just give them enough reason to stay out of my way the next time.

I'm not a violent person, at least as long as I don't have any good reason for it. I can't stand to see every kind of crime, but I'm usually not interfering when I see something, it's just too much trouble and I try to stay out of the cop's way as much as I can. I'm not a criminal, but the police don't like me that much.

My family (we're not really related to each other, we're just living together for a long time) thinks I'm weird, even though they're just like me. I can't blame them; I have to admit I'm a little strange. But just because I don't have any social bone or go out a lot I'm not a boring person. I'm just a loner and I like that, it's easier that way.

Okay I have to admit, sometimes I wish I had a mate just like my surrogate sister Isabel has her husband Alex or like Tess has her boyfriend Kyle. But then I think back at a time when I truly felt more for someone, someone who knew what I was and accepted me just like I had been. I had really thought that it was forever, that she was the one. Until she told me that she didn't want to give up her mortal life; she wanted to get married and have children, which she couldn't do when she was dead.

I could understand her point and I gave her up, although it almost destroyed me. She had been everything to me and she just threw my love back in my face. I let her go, just to watch her making a life with some guy, who wasn't in my eyes worthy of her. I stayed near her for a while, witnessing how she mutated into this mother person. I watched her raise two lovely daughters, who looked just as beautiful as their mother.

At that point I had to go or I would have broken my promise to never hurt a living soul. I hated the man that had stolen my love from me and I hated the children, because they had been the reason for her to leave me. So I travelled the world for a few decades. I went to Europe, visiting a few people I had met at some point and trying to forget.

It worked to some degree, at least as long as others were around me. But when I was alone, the feeling of loss was there, haunting my waking hours. It was hard for sometime to make myself believe that it was better for us in the long run. She wouldn't have been happy with me and I would have felt miserable for making her unhappy.

Then I felt strong enough to return back to my home, or what I usually called my home. Isabel and Tess were very delighted to see me, which they showed me by almost throwing me on the ground. Alex, Kyle and Jim (he's like a father to us all) were glad to have me back, but didn't make such a fuss like the girls.

I instantly felt better at being with people I cared about and I was sure that I would be able to handle everything. I mean my beloved Emma Marie was probably dead by now or was at least really old, seeing as I had been gone for almost half a century, but when I came to the topic the girls got really quiet and I saw something in their eyes that had been absent for so long. Pity, pity for me.

Jim was the one telling me that Emma Marie had been killed from an animal shortly after I was gone and they thought it was Rath, my twin brother, which I hadn´t seen since he had changed to the worse. He and I had been real close, closer than any siblings could ever be and then an accident turned him into a beast, a beast I didn't recognize anymore.

I'm not saying I'm a saint myself, I'm a monster as well, but I could never be so cold like he is. He destroys everything around him with no mercy and he enjoys the hunt, more than the kill.

From that moment on I just existed for taking revenge. Nothing mattered to me, just the thought to give him back what he had taken away from me. The others were worried about me, begging me to calm down and that Rath would get what he deserved one day. But I didn't listen to them, not even when they told me that they thought Emma Marie was the last member of the dayfighters and that was probably the reason why she had to die.

I've heard a lot about that legend and I couldn't believe that she should have been one of them. The dayfighters were just a myth, some fairytale to scare us and the others; just a story to give us a sense that one day the fighting between my people and our enemy would stop. I had never been one to believe that shit.

But Jim was so sure that a small part in me was wavering from my opinion. If that was really true then our enemy had destroyed our only chance to win this fight for once and for all, which meant that the war raging for centuries would continue until one side was distinct or gave up.

So I had another reason to hate my brother, which would make it easier for me to kill him. Unfortunately for that to happen, I had to find the bastard. I knew it would be hard, because he was really good at hiding and cleaning his tracks. But I had enough time to look for him and enough stamina to endure my mission.

Years passed me and waited for my opportunity. Criminals usually came back to the crime scene and Rath was one ruthless son of a bitch. I knew that one day he would make a mistake and I had my chance with him. I realized it was smarter to just let him come to me instead of wasting my energy to search the world for him. He would be back and I just had to be patient.

And my chance was coming when I made my usual round in New Orleans, listening to the people around me. His voice was the first thing my sensitive ears were recognizing. Instinctively I went in the direction where I have heard it and was shocked to see him sitting calmly in some bar, drinking a beer and flirting shamelessly with the girl behind the counter.

I was two seconds away from storming in there and ripping my brother apart, making him pay for all the pain he had caused me. But then the girl he was talking to turned towards me and I stopped dead in my tracks. This girl was looking like my Emma Marie; the same green eyes, the same kissable lips and the same shy smile. I was frozen on the spot for a moment, not quite able to believe my eyes. There she was again, my love, my life. She came back for me.

Instead of making my way in there, I ran away, away from the pictures haunting me for all those years now. Deep down I knew that it wasn't her, just someone looking like her, but it was enough to let me feel something I thought I had lost after she walked away from me. A feeling that was stronger than the hate I felt for my brother. My heart had been dead for so long, but one look at her and it was like it was beating again, just one moment and my whole existence changed.

My name is Michael Guerin, I´m a 197 year old vampire and today I felt my life coming back to me again.

TBC


End file.
